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FORM

Belarus arrived in Belfast on the back of a 4-0 pasting by Holland on Thursday night, their first defeat since a 2-0 loss to Finland last June. Belarus won four of their six UEFA Nations League games, albeit playing against some relatively weak opposition down in League D, where they faced San Marino, Luxembourg and Moldova, with the two draws coming against the latter. Their last qualifying campaign was far less successful as they won just one of their 10 World Cup qualifiers to finish bottom of Group A.

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COACH

A former Soviet youth international who spent his career in the lower divisions, Igor Kruishenko began his coaching career with BATE Borisov's reserves before taking charge of the senior team in 2005 and winning two league titles. After a spell with Dinamo Minsk, he earned promotion for Russian side Sibir Novosibirsk and guided the into the Europa League.

He returned to Belarus to win the Cup with Torpedo Zhodino before being named Belarus coach in March 2017, initially as caretaker before taking the job full time. After 22 games in charge, he has a 36 per cent win rate, drawing four and losing 10.

TACTICS

Kruishenko favours a 4-1-4-1 formation to balance defence and attack. Ivan Mayewski is employed to screen the back four, allowing the four players in front of him to get forward in support of their striker and try to overload defences.

PLAYERS

Former Arsenal midfielder Aleksander Hleb - now of BATE Borisov - is the most familiar name, continuing to get regular games at the age of 37. He is one of several very experienced players in the squad, which features six players with more than 50 caps to their name.

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